Travel and lifestyle journalist Francesca Page talks about how air travel standards will change due to the coronavirus.
A Spirit Airlines passenger was removed from a flight from La Guardia Airport to Fort Lauderdale, Florida on Friday for refusing to wear a mask.
A video of the incident shared on Twitter shows police confronting the unidentified man.
“The entire plane is a witness, I did nothing,” the man tells the Port Authority officer. “Tell me why I’m not flying.”
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Another passenger can be heard in the background showing his support for the man, saying that his expulsion is “racist” and that passengers have to remove their mask to drink. He also threatened to remove his own mask and said “if you take it off, you’re going to take it off me too.”
The officer continues to speak to the passenger, letting him know that he needs to leave the flight.
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“I’m going home to see my father who suffered a stroke,” the passenger tells the officer.
The officer proceeded to ask the passenger, “What would you like me to do?” To which the passenger responded saying that he wanted to stay on the flight.
Another video was released showing that the entire flight had to get off the plane and the man continued to refuse to wear a face mask.
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A Spirit Airlines spokesperson told FOX Business that the airline asked police to intervene after the man took off the mask and refused to put it back on.
“Ultimately, the man chose to disembark alone rather than risk legal consequences,” added the spokesperson. “Spirit will always err on the side of caution when it comes to the health and safety of our Guests. Wearing a face mask is simple, easy, and critical to Spirit and the airline industry as a whole. We thank the thousands of Guests and spirit team members who do their part every day to protect each other, and we will continue to apply the use of face covers on board our aircraft. “
| Heart | Security | Latest | Change | Change% |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| SAVE | SPIRIT AIRLINES INC. | 17.40 | -0.33 | -1.86% |
The news comes when airlines have been strictly enforcing established restrictions to mitigate the spread of the coronavirus pandemic.
A passenger was ejected from an American Airlines flight in June for refusing to wear a mask.
In addition, Delta CEO Ed Bastian told customers in a statement Wednesday that passengers who refuse to follow new airline industry guidelines “will risk losing the ability to fly with Delta in the future”.
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According to an analysis by Goldman Sachs, most American airlines are expected to face a prolonged recovery from the pandemic.
“We are incorporating a slower recovery in demand into our forecasts, particularly for international markets, than before,” Goldman analyst Catherine O’Brien wrote in a note to clients on Sunday. “We now expect operator traffic in our coverage universe to rebound to 2019 levels in 2023 compared to 2022.”
“Given current trends and incremental uncertainty around additional potential domestic travel restrictions in the US. Over the past few weeks, we now expect the pace of demand recovery in the US to be slower than what we expected previously, “added O’Brien.
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According to the analysis, air travel demand will eventually return and the airline industry’s net revenue is expected to rise 6 percent to $ 15.5 billion by 2025.
